Today's song of the day is Van Morison's Lonely Avenue (from Too Long in Exhile):

"lord, ain't this a lonely avenue"

We left Moratinos around 8 am this morning, after an excellent breakfast at our hotel.  The two women from Australia, who Linda had walked with a couple of days ago, joined us for breakfast.  They had left their hotel almost an hour previously, and were just stopping for breakfast.

After a walk of about 8 miles, through mostly flat and uninspiring agricultural land, we stopped for a lite snack of a pizza and coke.  Even though the pizza was undoubtedly frozen, it tasted great just because it was something different than the usual morning fair.

A couple of miles later, we come to a fork in the trail.  The "original" trail turns to the right and heads through the village of Calzada de Coto (sounds like a sandwich doesn't it?), while an alternative route continues alongside the highway to another town.  We continue on the traditional route, as we (think) we have previously made reservations at at hotel in Calzadilla de Los Hermanillos, about 6 miles further down the trail.

So, we trudged on.  Only, we seemed to be about the only people on the trail.  After the crowds of the past week, this is almost shocking, and makes us think we are lost. We kept walking, finally arriving to Calzadilla around 1:30.  The town was very dead, and we saw perhaps 2 people  as we walked the entire distance of the village.  Finally we came to our hotel, and went to check-in.  Linda talked to the proprietor in Spanish, explaining that we had made a reservation about a week earlier.  The owner looked up and down her register, and told Linda in Spanish, "I'm sorry, you don't have a reservation."   Ugh.   But then added, "however, we do have an extra room."  Woo hoo"!  Beats the hell out of me where (if at all) we had made a reservation for tonight, but we are safely ensconced in a beautiful "Casa Rural" hotel room in quiet Calzadilla for the night.  We are eating in the hotel restaurant tonight at 7:30 for their special pilgrim's meal.

We believe that most of the hikers took the alternative route today.  That route is much shorter to Leon, with apparently more alburgues (cheap hotels)  and a smoother trail.  Tomorrow, we have a hike of about 17 miles or so.  Our friends Dewey and MJ, who took this walk last year, tell us that the hike tomorrow was their hardest day, because of the uneven surface and sharp stones on the trail.  We will be taking a day off on Sunday, to rest and recharge our weary bodies.  We have now traveled approximately 260 miles out of total of 480, so we have passed the halfway point in our travels.

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